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SAT Reading Practice Test - 5

Instructions:

Passage 1
This passage is excerpted from a memoir published in the 1850s.

The want of sympathy experienced by him from men of his own class,
pressed sorely upon the heart of the sensitive man of talent and refinement;
he found very few who could appreciate or understand his mental
superiority, which was pronounced as folly and madness by the ignorant
(5) persons about him. A new country, where all are rushing eagerly forward in
order to secure the common necessaries of life, is not a favorable soil in
which to nourish the bright fancies and delusive dreams of the poet. Dr.
Huskins perceived his error too late, when he no longer retained the means
to remove to a more favorable spot,--and his was not a mind which could
(10) meet and combat successfully with the ills of life. He endeavored to bear
proudly the evils of his situation, but he had neither the energy nor the
courage to surmount them. He withdrew himself from society, and passed
the remainder of his days in a solitary, comfortless, log hut on the borders of
the wilderness. Here he drooped and died, as too many like him have died,
(15) heartbroken and alone. A sad mystery involves the last hours of his life: it is
said that he and Dr. Sutor, another talented but very dissipated man, had
entered into a compact to drink until they both died. Whether this statement
is true cannot now be positively ascertained. It is certain, however, that Dr.
Sutor was found dead upon the floor of the miserable shanty occupied by his
(20) friend, and that Dr. Huskins was lying on his bed in the agonies of death.
Could the many fine poems composed by Dr. Huskins in his solitary exile, be
collected and published, we feel assured that posterity would do him justice,
and that his name would rank high among the bards of the green isle.


1. What is the attitude of the author toward Dr. Huskins?
 A) pitying
B) ambivalent
C) bemused
D) acrimonious
E) cynical


2. The author blames the isolation Dr. Huskins experienced on all of the following except:
A) his intelligence
B) being misunderstood by others
C) the pressure to survive in a new land
D) his shy demeanor
E) his lack of resilience


3. The word 'dissipated' in line 16 most nearly means
A) disgraced
B) rueful
C) lapsed
D) wretched
E) fallible


4. In lines 8-14 the author is
A) resource
B) land
C) opportunity
D) motive
E) basis


Instructions: Reading: Sentence Completion (6 questions)

5. Nature and nurture, rather than being seen as opposing forces, are better depicted as ________________ that shape what we become.
A) cooperating
B) opponents
C) signals
D) assistants
E) collaborators


6. When it became ______ that there were hidden forces at work, he realized that he needed to slow down and _________ the reasons behind the recent events
A) aware .. consider
B) noticeable .. monitor
C) blatant .. accept
D) verified .. disclose
E) plain .. uncover


7. The results were so unexpected that the team decided to ________ the project and ________ it to include more participants.
A) suppress .. steer
B) defer .. pressure
C) accelerate .. expand
D) doubt .. diversify
E) curtail .. divest


8. Calliope, the name of the Greek muse of eloquence, also ______ a keyboard instrument with steam whistles.
A) illustrates
B) operates
C) denotes
D) delineates
E) endeavors


9. ____________, the naval commander Sir Francis Drake had thousands of men die of food poisoning while his fleet _________ the Spanish Armada.
A) Tragically .. battled
B) To his credit .. infected
C) Tactically .. deflected
D) Propitiously .. encountered
E) Of necessity .. shunned


10. The applications of this new research have not been lost on educators, administrators, institutions, and others who have a ______ in the learning process.
A) reason
B) union
C) stake
D) vocation
E) spokesperson






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